#In the epilogue novels Shion uses some corruption and shady backdoor politics to oust Yoming

[oatmealaddiction]

Hi! No.6 question, if you don’t mind: does either the manga or the novels explain what was going on with Shion with the violence towards those who insulted/hurt Nezumi?

I mean all of the versions address it, the novels and manga a little bit more explicitly, but basically Shion's violent outbursts are a symptom of a lot of emotional repression. In his life in No. 6 he's never really been defensive or righteously angry before because so much of the injustice in his system has been kept from him (also I might be wrong on this but I think it's also cannon that the parasitic wasp was being used on lots of No.6 citizens as an emotional suppressant; Shion included). After he meets Nezumi and is outside of the bubble of No. 6 for the first time his emotions become extremely heightened and he isn't used to managing them so they tend to hit him in these weird waves. That's why he goes immediately from beating the crap out of Rikiga to crying to suddenly fine again. Basically Shion has never had to emotionally regulate before and he's doing it for the first time. Also some of this is just to show that even someone as kind and gentle as Shion when pushed to the brink can absolutely lose it and become violent and aggressive, which is a foil to Nezumi's arc as Nezumi overtime becomes more empathetic and self-sacrificing as he is extended better circumstances.